Recent advances in vacancy engineering of metal‐organic frameworks and their derivatives for electrocatalysis

• Published in: SusMat (Online) Vol. 1; no. 1; pp. 66 - 87
• Main Authors: Wu, Yuhang, Li, Yuwen, Gao, Junkuo, Zhang, Qichun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chengdu John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01-03-2021; Wiley
• Subjects: active sites; Adsorption; Alternative energy sources; Catalysis; Chemical reduction; defect; derivatives; Efficiency; Electrocatalysis; Electrocatalysts; Electrochemistry; Energy conversion; Engineering; Fossil fuels; Ligands; Metal-organic frameworks; Nanomaterials; Oxygen evolution reactions; Oxygen reduction reactions; Plasma etching; vacancy
• ISSN: 2692-4552; 2766-8479; 2692-4552
• DOI: 10.1002/sus2.3

The efficient electrocatalysis plays the key role in the development of electrochemical energy conversion technologies to alleviate energy crisis. Given their multiple active sites and large specific surface areas as electrocatalysts, metal‐organic frameworks (MOFs) and their derivatives have attracted considerable interests in recent years. Specially, exploring the roles of the enhanced active sites in MOFs and their derivatives is significant for understanding and developing new effective electrocatalysts. Recently, the vital role of vacancies has been proven to promote electrocatalytic processes (such as H2 or O2 evolution reactions, O2 reduction reactions, and N2 reduction reactions). In order to in‐depth exploring the effect of vacancies in electrocatalysts, the vacancies classification, synthetic strategy, and the recent development of various vacancies in MOFs and their derivatives for electrocatalysis are reviewed. Also, the perspectives on the challenges and opportunities of vacancies in MOFs and their derivatives for electrocatalysis are presented.
The vacancies play an important role in electrocatalytic progress. Since metal‐organic frameworks (MOFs) and their derivatives have been widely used as an important platform to construct various vacancies for the development of diverse highly‐efficient electrocatalysts. In this review, various types of vacancies in MOFs and their derivatives are categorized and their electrochemical applications are summarized.